GM tries to create bidding war with the precious few bidders

“Chicago didn't give us any deadline,” Towers said. “I imagine we'll continue to talk to them, but it's going to definitely take a third team to get something done there.

“With the Dodgers, the sense I got from them is they've got bigger fish to fry. If (free agent outfielder) Manny (Ramirez) falls out of the picture with them, then maybe they circle back to us. But they've always been the type of organization that's liked to hoard their good players. They'd much rather put their club together through free agency than by (trading) the depth that they have.”

Certainly, an Atlanta deal could be revisited. The marketplace is fluid and top-tier pitching is always scarce. Still, the Braves have a policy against negotiating no-trade contracts, a policy Towers says could prove a “stumbling block” with Peavy, even if the two teams were to agree on the players to be exchanged.

“I don't take anything at face value this time of year,” Axelrod said of Atlanta's adamance. “If I hear (Braves General Manager) Frank Wren say that he's not interested any longer, I take it with a grain of salt.”

Axelrod assumes, correctly, that many of the pronouncements teams make about potential trades are mere gamesmanship. Towers assumes that Jake Peavy is too competitive to be content as the crown jewel of a tinfoil tiara; and that his personal goals may ultimately outstrip his geographic preferences and his National League bias.

Translated: Towers sees the potential for traction with the New York Yankees. The Yankees have the kind of young arms the Padres covet (in Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy), have expressed the desire to acquire as many as three established starters this offseason, and have the tradition and wherewithal to turn heads.

Problem: Jake Peavy is already set for several lifetimes, and has professed a strong preference to avoid the Boston-New York holy war.

“We gave them a top five,” Axelrod said, referring to the Braves, Cubs, Dodgers, Houston Astros and St. Louis Cardinals. “It's not a definitive list. It's not exclusive, not cast in stone, and it's not approved.

“We have not created any list of acceptable teams (or) a list of possibly acceptable teams. Our position is to sit here and wait until a proposed trade is in place, and give input on whether that would be acceptable or not.”

Towers says he will not waste his own time or that of potential trading partners without Peavy's consent. Axelrod says Peavy has rejected only one club outright, a club he declined to identify.

“As of right now, there hasn't been a deal that's been presented to us that we could accept,” Towers said. “The next thing is (for) Barry to sit down with Jake and say, 'Doesn't look like anything's happening with L.A. Nothing's more than likely happening with the Cubs and as of now not with the (Braves). As of now, you're probably going to remain a Padre.' ”